Fitch pitches municipal reform

The New Brunswick government continued its talk about amalgamation and reforming local government this weekend.

Local Government Minister Bruce Fitch was part of a panel discussion in Saint John Saturday, along with Saint John Mayor Ivan Court.

It's a topical issue, especially for Court, because earlier this week Saint John's city council approved a budget that included millions of cuts on top of an already high municipal tax rate.

"Cities are the engines of the province, but they're not properly funded. Yet they're taking on these responsibilities that probably belong to another level government," Court said.

"And, as a result of that, their neighbouring communities have lower tax rates and so on, and that's not sustainable."

Amalgamation is a complicated process, fraught with fear of tax increases and the loss of rural identity.

Fitch said he is trying to avoid those fears.

He said more communities are open to the idea of amalgamation, if they can find a way around the barriers.

"What are those barriers? One is the current taxation system, the other is high cost of road maintenance and the third is the sharing of policing costs," Fitch said.

Reforming local government can mean redrawing boundaries, setting tax rates and assigning service providers.

It's a lot of red tape and the last time there was a major overhaul was the 1960s.

That's too long ago, says Jean-Guy Finn, the author of a 2008 report for the province on the problems with local government.

"Any public program, if it's in place long enough, will yield unplanned and undesirable consequences," he said.

Fitch said he hopes to find ways to encourage municipalities to amalgamate or work together. But he said the government won't force any communities to amalgamate.

One year ago, Fitch launched a public consultation process to examine the province's property taxation and assessment regime, regional delivery of services and municipal funding deals.